Q&A with Fabio Sasso of Abduzeedo

July 1, 2011

Graphic, web, industrial and architectural designers have an instinctual need to share work, get feedback and be inspired. Abduzeedo is an online design community that does just that. Fabio Sasso started Abduzeedo as personal back-up system for his work, but now the site attracts over 3 Million visitors per month as an inspiration destination for creatives in all walks of life. (mt) has had the opportunity to scale with Abduzeedo from a (dv) to a Nitro. As some of his biggest fans, it’s a pleasure to bring this exclusive interview with Fabio Sasso of Abduzeedo to you.

How did you start in Graphic Design?

I’ve liked to draw ever since I was kid, but I never really knew what I was doing. Then, in ‘97, I was choosing a program for college and I discovered Industrial Design. From there, I studied in school and started experimenting with web design, learning how to create pages by checking out the source code and trying to recreate the pages with my own design.

How would you say Brazilian culture has influenced your style?

Being Brazilian influences the way I approach creative problems every day. Living in a third world country, where educational resources are very limited, is in itself an influencing factor. We have to be resourceful to overcome various serious and simplistic problems, like finding design books in Portuguese.

Being Brazilian influences the way I approach creative problems every day. Living in a third world country, where educational resources are very limited, is in itself an influencing factor.

Brazilian culture and the carnival culture are also very colorful and organic. This lack of traditional instruction coupled with our culture creates a unique style seen in a lot of amazing work by Brazilian designers like Adhemas Batista, Guilherme Marconi.

Any pointers for those building their own creative communities or blogs?

The first thing to do is find something that you really love. It’s really important because people see when someone is passionate about their project. You will start getting more people that share your interests, that want to help, and give you motivation. At least that is what happened with me.

How has (mt) Media Temple helped your site and community grow?

(mt) was super important in the success of the site. We were having problems with scaling the site due the traffic. Our hosting was small and unprepared for the traffic we were having, so the site was always down and users started to complain. Then when we moved to (mt), things got stable and the site grew a lot.

Our hosting was small and unprepared for the traffic we were having, so the site was always down and users started to complain. Then when we moved to (mt), things got stable and the site grew a lot.

It is really important to have good content but we have to make sure that it is accessible, easy to find and super fast to load. With (mt) help we were able to focus on what we love that is design and inspiration and not get worried about servers and stuff like that.

Why a book?

I’ve had the idea for a book a long time now but never imagined it would actually be written or published. Then, last year, I was at a design event and met a senior editor from Peachpit. We started talking and she became really interested in my ideas. A few months later, she contacted me with an offer for a book deal. I was blown away.

Who are your favorite designers right now?

There are so many that I admire, but I would like to mention three amazing designers and great friends I have here in the bay area: Vitor Lourenco is a Product Designer at Twitter; Roger Oddone, Senior Designer at Google; Everaldo Coelho, Senior Designer at Apple. These guys are super talented (Brazilian as well, by the way) and I am always learning from them.

Where do you get your personal daily inspirations?

Everywhere, from posters and billboards on the streets to movies on TV and the web. Inspiration is everywhere, the challenge is finding the right type of inspiration for the project you are working on. That’s why it’s important to understand the audience and aesthetic you are designing for. It makes everything much easier and helps you avoid information overflow.

Fabio Sasso: Founder of Abduzeedo. Fabio began working as a designer in 1996. He received a degree in Graphic Design and has worked professionally in Brazil since 1998. Starting in 2011, however, Fabio followed opportunity to Mountain View, CA where he’s begun working as Senior Graphic Designer at Google. You can find Fabio on twitter @abduzeedo and at fabiosasso.com.